I spent a couple weeks creating a new dashboard for our users last month. We launched to production behind a feature flag. At that point, the CEO weighed in with some strong opinions about how he wanted things changed. I'm currently in the process of re-working it. About half the code I wrote is going away completely. Maybe it will get resurrected some day. Probably not. It's frustrating to me sometimes and demotivating at other times. But, in the now famous words of a certain helmeted bounty hunter: this is the way.

My grandfather was civil engineer. He designed and built buildings. During his 90th birthday party, he commented to the family about how every building he had built in his career had later been torn down to make way for something new. All of the work of his entire career, now gone. This is the way. 

I'm not a civil engineer. I don't build buildings. I don't even build with physical materials, except on the most scientific level I suppose. There are logic gates on some distant computer somewhere that store the code I write. Soon, they will get overwritten with new information. The websites I have created will not exist in a few years. The code I write will last a few years at best. And honestly, I'm not even sure I want it to last that wrong. I'm glad the code I wrote ten years ago is gone. 

So, here's to hoping that I can get a bit more comfortable with things going away. I create things. There is meaning in the creation. Occasionally, they also help other people for a little while. Then, when they are no longer useful, or when something more useful comes along, they go away. It's hard for me, but I'm hoping I can come to peace with this at some point. I think I'm getting closer. We will see.